The prestigious award has been presented the past 11 years as part of the Greater Austin Business Awards. This year, the business community submitted 385 nominations for the Business Awards – the highest number of submissions ever.

“This Austin Chamber signature event illustrates our fundamental principle of honoring businesses of all sizes for their success and contribution to the community,” Bobby Jenkins, Austin Chamber chairman of the board and president of ABC Services, said in a press release.“We recognize these businesses not only because they help to drive the economy in Austin, but also because they serve as role models in their respective areas, providing solid examples of how businesses of all kinds can thrive in Austin.”

Alex Abadi, PhD, CEO of Image Microsystems, says that innovation is integrated in everything that his company does. “Whether it be the custom software we develop to enable major retailers and computer OEMs to manage their returns or asset recovery more efficiently, or the automated solutions we design to streamline the notoriously labor intensive reverse logistics programs we run in our factory,” Abadi said. “We’ve also invested in research to develop closed-loop, cradle-to-cradle manufacturing — from asset recovery through recycling and ultimately to products manufactured from e-waste.”

One result of this effort is patent-pending MicroStrate sign substrate.

The sign substrate is manufactured completely of recycled e-waste plastic. Image Microsystems’ proprietary manufacturing process combines “dirty” plastic found in spent printer cartridges and computer or printer housings and converts it into resilient, cost-effective, earth-friendly products such as traffic signs and markers.